THE BAHAMAS AND BERMUDAS 



305 



Hogsty Reef (atoll) [Fig. 11], five miles by two and a 

 half, had been formed by the scouring of the surf, just 



Fig. 9 



Fig. 10 



in the way represented by the preceding crescent-shaped 

 reef (Serpulae Algae atoll). The corals had grown and 

 formed a barrier over which the surf broke and dug out 

 the atoll. But the atoll was not formed by the growth 

 of the coral during subsidence, as it is only a few feet 

 thick on a sub-basis of seolian hills which have disap- 

 peared, and when that bank got a proper depth for corals, 

 they flourished. One thing is very plain, that while to 

 subsidence the present configuration of the Bahamas and 

 Bermudas is due, that is a very different thing from 

 saying that the reefs which surrounded the islands and 

 banks as a thin veneer 

 are the cause of the 

 forming of the atoll- 

 shaped islands keep- 

 ing pace with the p IG- u 

 subsidence, when a 



few feet below the coral is found the seolian rock ! ! 

 I don't yet know what my plans are to be this early 



